Abbas aide doesn't have high hopes for ME summit

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top PLO official closely associated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said Friday that he did not have high hopes for the US-sponsored Mideast peace summit since Israel was only interested in talking to Arab countries but not with the Palestinians. Speaking at a conference in Jordan, Rabbo said he believed Israel would adopt a foot-dragging approach in negotiations with the Palestinians until normalization was achieved with the Arab states. He claimed that once this was achieved, Israel would ignore the Palestinian issue.